Regex in PHP doesn't work

Question

       $subject= "Citation flow <img src='/static/images/icons/help.png'>
                                </span>
                            </p>
                            <p style='font-size: 150%;'><b>11</b></p>";
           $pattern="/Citation flow[.]+<b>([0-9]+)<\/b>/i";

          preg_match_all($pattern, $subject,$matches,PREG_PATTERN_ORDER);

          print_r($matches);

I want to capture the number 11 inisde the bold tags.. but my regex expression doesnt work.. why?

UPDATE:

I came up with this.. but I am not 100% it is the best solution:

$pattern="/Citation flow[\s\S]*<b>([0-9]+)<\/b>/i";

When you say [.]+ you actually mean .+. [.]+ matches a string of dots; the dot is not special inside a character class. — lanzz
– lanzz, Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 12:15
I'd strongly recommend using an actual HTML parser, like simpledom - simplehtmldom.sourceforge.net. — Adam
– Adam, Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 12:17
You seem to be trying to parse HTML with regular expressions. You may want to read stackoverflow.com/a/1732454/110707 — Wooble
– Wooble, Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 12:17
I know about simple_html_parse.. but the doc I am trying to scrape hasnt got many unique tags — Dmitry Makovetskiyd
– Dmitry Makovetskiyd, Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 12:22

Joey · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-18 12:15:26Z

3

Well, it cannot match as Citation flow has a space after it, not an arbitrary number of dots. You probably meant

(?si)Citation flow.+<b>(\d+)</b>

answered Jun 18, 2012 at 12:15

Joey

357k88 gold badges704 silver badges699 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

Dmitry Makovetskiyd Over a year ago

whats the difference between \d+ and what i did

Qtax Over a year ago

Don't forget to use /s or (?s).

Joey Over a year ago

Dmitry: \d is a shorthand for [0-9].

Joey Over a year ago

You can put the s and i options after the trailing delimiter in preg_match. It's just a way of specifying regex options inline.

BugFinder · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-18 12:20:41Z

0

Do you not want

$pattern="/Citation flow[.]+<b>([0-9]+)<\/b>/si";

answered Jun 18, 2012 at 12:20

BugFinder

17.9k4 gold badges42 silver badges58 bronze badges

1 Comment

Joey Over a year ago

Unlikely, as that would also try matching literal dots.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Regex in PHP doesn't work

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related